ガリガリ君ができるまで

This is a children’s book about ガリガリ君、a popular frozen snack. It follows Nanami, a starry-eyed new employee in the product development division as she learns the ropes and helps bring a new product to market. ガリガリ君 is known for its fun new flavors, but what actually goes into making them? There’s the concept, the recipe, package design, the logistics of mass-production, promotion, supply chain… And after all that, will customers like it?

岩貞るみこ has written several children’s books for Aoi Tori Bunko which straddle the line between fiction and non-fiction. I’ve now read 3 books by her, and I think they’re great for adult language learners. This is a story written in simple easy-to-understand language about normal adults in the real world doing interesting jobs. If you like watching “How it’s made” videos, I recommend giving this a try.

Because this is a story about adults and business, the vocabulary tends to have more overlap than children’s books usually do with the words you learn in adult-oriented classes, textbooks, and JLPT materials. Many common vocabulary words related to business show up, here presented in the form of an easy to read story. The sentence structure is straightforward and tends to be on the short side. Occasionally one of the easy to look up/figure out N1 grammar expressions pops up here or there.

There is full furigana.